Ignacio Bernal
1910 - 1992
Ignacio Bernal started out as a student under Alfonso Caso
while working on excavating and reconstructing Monte Alban’s
Main Plaza. Later, with his student, John
Paddock, he excavated much of the rest of Monte
Alban. Along with this great accomplishment, Ignacio
Bernal has achieved much during his life; he was the director of Mexico’s
National Museum of Anthropology, he headed the Mexican government’s major
archeological project at Teotihuacan, he presided over the XXXV International
Congress of Americanists where several of his papers
were presented, and he has written many books and articles.
The National
Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City is considered to be one of the
greatest museums of the world. The museum was started in 1744 at the Royal and Pontifical University for the purpose of collecting
information on the native Mexicans so the early settlers could more easily
dominate them. In 1865 the museum was moved to a beautiful Baroque building
called the Casa de la Moneda. In 1947 the National Museum of Anthropology became one of the
most technologically advanced museums of its time. Instead of cold, dark,
warehouse-like rooms filled with various items, artifacts had been selected
that represented each culture and put in lighted display shelves and boxes. The
rest of the items were then organized and put in storage. This seemed
completely unheard of during that time, but it made the public more aware and definitely
more interested in ancient Mexico.
Monte Alban was
the center of the Oaxaca
culture during the Classic Period of Mesoamerican prehistory. The Ball Court is an
I-shaped playing area with four niches at each of the corners and a central
stone marker. The niches have no known function but the central stone marker is
thought to serve as a surface to bounce a ball off of to start a game. It was
Ignacio Bernal who noticed that this was the way the Zapotecs
start one of their ball games. Ignacio Bernal’s life is full of accomplishments
and his legacy will live on.
Resources
Paddock, John. Ancient Oaxaca, Stanford
University Press, 1966
Ragghianti, Carlo Ludovico.
National Museum
of Anthropology, Mexico City, Newsweek Inc: New York, 1970
Written
By: Christina Berberich